Strong Year On Broadway Ends With a Record Week

Audiences flocked to Broadway theaters over the holiday weekend, helping to make the week leading up to Memorial Day the highest grossing and most attended since the Broadway League began recording figures for the preholiday week decades ago.

Grosses for the week ended Sunday totaled $31 million, up from $26 million last year, while attendance reached 300,000.

The full season, which began last May and also ended on Sunday, hit a high note, with $1.27 billion in grosses, up 11.4% from last season. Attendance, at 12.21 million, rose 5.6% from last season, according to the Broadway League, the national trade associate for the Broadway industry.

The highest attendance in a 52-week season was 12.3 million, in 2011-2012. The freezing temperatures this past winter most likely were responsible for the just-ended season not breaking the attendance record, said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the Broadway League.

Part of the bump in grosses is thanks to higher ticket prices, which averaged $103.88, compared with $98.42 last season.

This year a larger-than-usual number of theaters were full—currently 35 of 40 Broadway houses have shows running. Of the 40 houses, three are under renovation, and two houses had shows close within the past month.

This season was particularly diverse and plentiful—nine new musicals opened this season, including Disney’s fantastical “Aladdin”; the metaphysical “If/Then,” starring Idina Menzel; Woody Allen’s broad comedy “Bullets Over Broadway”; and the valentine to singer/songwriter Carole King, “Beautiful.”

There were also a number of blockbuster plays this year, including two Shakespeare plays in repertory by the all-male troupe from Shakespeare’s Globe—“Twelfth Night” and “Richard III”—which broke records at the box office.

“There were more blockbuster plays this year than I’ve seen in a very long time,” said Ms. St. Martin. “We’ve never had this many at once.”

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